Katie Ledecky is one of the stars at the 2014 Metro Championships: a high school championship meet that’s the equivalent to a state meet for many programs in the Washington D.C. area. She’s already broken an American Record in the 500 free in a separate preliminary session on Friday night, and that’s what this meet will be remembered for in 50 years.
In the now, however, she is far from the only star and only National (Age Group) Record holder at the meet.
The rest of the prelims races, aside from the 500 free and the 400 free relay, were swum on Saturday morning, and a lot of big numbers have gone on the board.
Ledecky swam her other individual event, the 200 freestyle, on Saturday morning, and took the top seed by seven seconds with a 1:44.25 ahead of sophomore Hannah Lindsey (1:51.17). It hasn’t been talked about as much as her 500 free, but Ledecky very well could break the American Record in the 200 free tonight as well.
After splitting a casual 48.85 as the anchor on Stone Ridge’s 400 free relay in prelims on Friday, she also swam the 200 free relay on Saturday morning, anchoring in 22.87 as Stone Ridge (Cecila Gasaway, Kalleigh Haley, and Laura Garcia) took the top seed in 1:37.27. Ledecky’s schedule sets up well for her to go after an even faster 500 yard free time tonight in finals, though we speculated last night that Saturday would be more about ‘team’ now that the record is out of the way.
Junior Carsten Vissering from Georgetown prep had a strong morning as well. He was a 1:50.92 to take the top seed in the 200 IM ahead of Harrison Gu (1:53.89), and later was a 54.83 in the 100 yard breaststroke. He swims for Georgetown Prep, which means he’s got a chance at both the independent high school record (53.66) and overall high school record (53.39) in finals tonight, and expect him to be gunning for those records.
He was also a 25.01 in the 50 breaststroke on Georgetown Prep’s top-seeded 200 medley relay.
Vissering’s teammate Adrian Lin had a good morning session as well, with a top-seeded 1:39.15 in the 200 yard free. He should be able to get into the 1:38 range tonight, and could push for a 1:37 as well.
The Georgetown Prep boys look headed for a team title in finals, unless someone jumps up and gets them. Loaded with a great junior class, Grant Goddard also has top seeds in two races (50 free, 100 fly).
Wooton High School’s Kristina Li, who is a Harvard commit, took the top seed in the 100 back on the girls’ side in 54.96; and there’s a tie for the top seed in the women’s 100 breaststroke between Schuyler Bailar and Jessica Chen in 1:05.53.
Full meet results are available on Meet Mobile.
1.42.38 for Katie in the 200 free final.
Not a best time but it’s a new high school record.
Congrats to her.
Haha. I’m actually slightly disappointed in a HS girl going 1:42.3… wowza she is friggin good.
I think she’ll go for it in the 200 and relays and just do enough to win the 500… it’s insane to t junk this but she can probably cruise a low 4:40s to lock up the points…
I can’t believe I just typed that.
Times to beat for Carsten Vissering in the 100 breast are 53.39 for the high school record and 53.26 for the 15/16 NAG record.
Ledecky split a 48.8 on relay yesterday…not 54.5. Her 200 morning swim was fast…wouldn’t be surprised to see AR fall in that one as well.
You guys are right; I hadn’t thought of her like that yet, but now that you mention it ,it seems likely. At nationals in Dec, she already went faster than I thought she would, 1:42, the same meet at which she “only” went 4:32 for the 500. I noticed that she went a PR 55.5 in the 100 at the last LCM Grand Prix too, so her speed is improving, and her 200 was 1:57.7 in that meet unrested. She is definitely closing in on Franklin and Schmitt. I think Romano’s record is going down.
I can’t imagine a few comments on swimswam if she breaks the 200 free American record. 🙄
Devan and danm133 have USADA on speed dial to notify them of doping infractions the second her hand touches the wall
😆
Eagleswim… and I’ve already sent my super spies to all their coaches houses to get hold of their logbooks so we can determine how many days of rest they are on, and then they’ll be on deck to take pictures of their shins to see if any shaving has occured and verify suit models and to find out if they are ‘old’ tech suits or ‘new’ tech suits…
Now now, let’s not be mean…